spirit.fire.she

When the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo died, her husband muralist Diego Rivera locked her clothes and jewelry into a closet. They stayed there for fifty years and only recently were re-discovered. In November 2012 “Appearances Can Be Deceiving” opened at La Casa Azul aka The Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City (the previous residence of Frida and Diego) and it is dedicated entirely to the wardrobe of the woman known as “la heroina del dolor” Read more...

By last Sunday’s Olympic Closing Ceremonies, I was so ready for that flame to be extinguished and the Games to be over and done with. I hate to admit it, but I had grown tired of the Olympic coverage. It went about five days too long and the spoilers didn’t help motivate me to watch a competition in which I already knew who won gold. I certainly could’ve done without the synchronized swimming, the diving– Read more...

Friday before last we awoke to the news of the massacre in Aurora, Colorado. Even though my heart was breaking for the senseless murders, I like many of us who identify as Black, held my breath and hoped and prayed that the killer was not Black. That he or she did not look like me. Later I found out, after perusing quite a few blogs and Twitter feeds that many Muslims had the same anxious Read more...

Kehinde Wiley’s “An Economy of Grace is a study of poise, flyness, beauty, class, glamour and Blackness. And today it will all come to a close.

The women– Homegirls. Ena, Treisha, Shanatavia, Dacia. Brooklyn. Fulton Mall-shopping, Beyonce loving, mothers who take pride in a good manicure. Their poses are based on historical portraits of “society women” by Jacques-Louis David, Thomas Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent. Their clothes– long luxurious gowns reminiscent of neo-classical French romanticism. Read more...

It’s Friday. Flyaspora Friday here at theHotness and we thought we’d titillate your senses with a little fine art. I love these two portraits because they reappropriate what is considered classical, high art and dips them low in a point a view and representation that goes against the grain yet supports the woman I see in the mirror every day. Awol Erizku’s “Girl With A Bamboo Earring” reimagines Johannes Vermeer’s famous “Girl with a Pearl Read more...

Seriously, where does the time go? I can’t believe it’s the last day of Black History Month already! Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to post like I really would have liked, but on this Leap Day and in celebration of BHM I must big-up Naomi Campbell as she conjures rock-n-roll icon, Tina Turner, for her “Private Dancer” V Magazine pictorial. The legs, the hair, the fringed dresses serve up Nut Bush in the most Read more...

Talk about being “out with the old and in with the new.” Well the ladies over at Ebony Magazine have revamped the magazine and are about to launch their new website any day. For now they tease us with their stunning Tumblr that is “in with the new AND old.” Featuring magazine covers and ads from the ‘50’s – ‘80’s, the photos are not only nostalgia-inducing, they are powerful and without a doubt Black like Read more...

Black Gold of The Sun. Indian Gold. Ghetto Gold.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
She is Oyá, Yemayá and definitely Oshún.
Lakshmi and Kali.
Not Venus de Milo.
She is the mahogany, chocolate, amber glow of Black Power.
She is delicate and kick ass. Narrow hips and big ass.
She is Mumbai, Dubai and Bed Stuy.
She is Rum Raisin shellacked lips.
Afro-Sheen.
Afro-Queen.
Afro-Asiatic.
She smells like Chai.
Nagchampa.
A Mississippi Masala Mozambiquen Maroon.
She Read more...